Feeling reassured, he climbed again and began to
circle round and round, expecting his comrade. Guynemer was coming back,
could not but come back, and the cause of his delay was probably the
excitement of the chase. He was so reckless! Like Dorme--who one fine
morning in May, on the Aisne, went out and was never heard of
afterwards--he was not afraid of traveling long distances over enemy
country. He must come back. It is impossible he should not come back;
he was beyond the reach of common accidents, invincible, immortal! This
was a certitude, the very faith of the Storks, a tenet which never was
questioned. The notion of Guynemer falling to a German seemed hardly
short of sacrilege.
So Bozon-Verduraz waited on, making up his mind to wait as long as
necessary. But an hour passed, and nobody appeared. Then the airman
broadened his circles and searched farther out, without, however,
swerving from the rallying-point. He searched the air like Nisus the
forest in his quest of Euryalus, and his mind began to misgive him.
After two hours he was still waiting, alone, noticing with dismay that
his oil was running low.
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